Update at 12:11 p.m., Sept. 24, by Tristan Hallman: Navarro County Sheriff Elmer Tanner said in a news conference that the mother, Guadalupe Ronquillo-Ovalle, shot and killed her children and her husband before turning the gun on herself.

Tanner said the murder-suicide appears to have happened on Thursday or Friday.

A reporter asked Tanner if he had ever heard of a mother slaying her family. Tanner said that in 25 years, he had never seen a mother shoot her kids.

Update at 9:17 a.m., Sept. 23: Navarro County Sheriff Elmer Tanner said this morning that authorities "are working this case as a murder-suicide." Five people are dead, said the sheriff, including 33-year-old Israel Alvarez, his 33-year-old wife Guadalupe Ronquillo-Ovalle and their three sons, who were 10, 8 and 4 years old.

According to the sheriff, all five victims "have gunshot wounds to their upper torsos."

A single weapon was recovered: a 22.-caliber semi-automatic long rifle.

Tanner said it remains unclear when the shooting took place: The kids were last seen in school Thursday, but weren't there Friday. They were found last night by a grandfather, who drove to Navarro County from Dallas-Fort Worth after he'd been unable to get anyone at the house on the phone for at least a couple of days.

The sheriff said Alvarez was arrested September 11 on a Class C simple assault charge, after his wife accused him of pushing her. He remained in custody for two days and was released after he paid a $367 fine. Ronquillo-Ovalle wasn't injured, Tanner said, and she had not filed for a protective order.

Tanner wouldn't say who investigators believe to be the shooter, nor would he release further details concerning where the bodies were found.

"We are working this case as murder-suicide," he said. "The evidence at the location supports a murder-suicide scene."

"It's a traumatic situation," says Tanner. "We will take the time to remember those victims and those families this morning. A lot of people have been touched by this unfortunate incident."

Original item posted at 6:28 a.m., Sept. 23: The Navarro County Sheriff's Office has called a 9 a.m. press conference to discuss Sunday night's discovery of five bodies inside a house just outside the tiny town of Rice, about 44 miles southeast of Dallas.

In a Facebook posting Sunday night, Sheriff Elmer Tanner said that at around 7 p.m., Navarro County Sheriff's dispatch received a 911 call from a Spanish-speaking man who "wanted to report a multiple fatality incident" at a house on a County Road NW 0149. The caller told dispatch that five members of his family were dead.

The first deputy to reach the scene confirmed: Two adults were dead, as were three "young children," all believed to be under the age of 12.

Tanner wrote Sunday night that "we do not have reason to believe there are any other suspects at this time." He did not elaborate further, leading some news accounts to suggest this may have been a murder-suicide.

“I don’t care where you are," Tanner said. "Any time there’s five losses of lives in one location, that’s shocking and traumatic. It doesn’t make any difference where you are. It’s a horrible, horrible thing to see, witness or be a part of.”